In the 20th Century, the narrow election victory of the Conservatives in Britain in 1951 allowed the party to reassert itself quickly and led to 13 years of Conservative rule, until 1965. How was the party able to reassert itself so quickly and what did it do with its period in power? Winston Churchill hoped to roll back the tide of socialism. Did he succeed, or did the Conservatives, by contrast, help to confirm a new consensus which, while not socialist, could also not be described as capitalist in the classical sense of the term? For download and transcript versions of this lecture, please visit the event's page on the Gresham College website: Britain in the Twentieth Century: The Conservative Reaction, 1951-1965"

Professor Vernon Bogdanor

Vernon Bogdanor CBE is EmeritusGresham Professor of Law, current Visiting Gresham Professor of Political History, Research Professor at King's College London, a Fellow of theBritishAcademyand an Honorary Fellow of theInstituteofAdvanced Legal Studies. Prior to 2010, Professor Bogdanor Fellow ofBrasenoseCollege, is Professor of Government atOxfordUniversity.

He has been an adviser to a number of governments, including those of theCzechRepublic,Hungary,Kosovo,IsraelandSlovakia. His books include The People and the Party System, Multi-Party Politics and the Constitution, Power and the People, and Devolution in theUnited Kingdom. He is a frequent contributor to TV, radio and the press and is a sometime special advisor to the House of Lords Select Committee on the European Communities (1982-83), and the House of Commons Public Service Committee. Most recently he was awarded the Sir IsiaiahBerlinprize for Lifetime Contribution to Political Studies by the Political Studies Association.